UW-Milwaukee Sociology (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Sociology
- Public university
- Milwaukee, WI
- About 41 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UW-Milwaukee sociology graduates earn about what sociology graduates earn nationally, $36,452 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $26,000 in federal loans, close to the national median of $25,000. It is one of the higher-paying sociology degrees in Wisconsin.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Wisconsin and national columns are the medians across all sociology bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UW-Milwaukee graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the Wisconsin median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Wisconsin sociology program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Wisconsin medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 35% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned about the same in their first year as other graduates, but borrowed more: a median of $28,187 against $23,225.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $276 a month, or 9.1% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
77% of graduates (58 of 75) were working in Wisconsin one year after graduating. Prices in the Milwaukee area are about 3% below the national average, so a $36,452 salary here buys what about $37,604 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to sociology, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Social Science Research Assistants
$48,090Median pay in Wisconsin. 110 people work in this job in Wisconsin. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 4,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Sociologists
$106,030Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 200 openings a year. Typical education to start: master's degree.
About UW-Milwaukee
Sociology ranks 35th of 57 bachelor's programs at UW-Milwaukee by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Engineering ($76,982), Computer Science ($73,795), and Electrical Engineering ($73,603).
Other sociology bachelor's programs near Milwaukee
Common questions
The median graduate earns $36,452 one year after graduating and $49,160 five years after. The median across sociology bachelor's programs in Wisconsin is $35,981.
The median federal loan balance is $26,000, which ranks 5th lowest of 9 sociology bachelor's programs in Wisconsin. That works out to about $276 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 71% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 72%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less.
Most do. 77% (58 of 75) were working in Wisconsin one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Wisconsin comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the sociology program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024